Video interview with pixação street artist L7M

São Paulo street artist, L7M, started painting, pixação, the unique form of Brazilian calligraphic graffiti, eight years ago, and, like many others who are involved in this anti-social practice, mainly from Brazil’s under class, was persecuted for it.

The film, directed by Underground Paris Contributing Editor, Fernanda Hinke, bears witness to L7M creating artwork inside an abandoned factory, and is overdubbed with an interview in which he speaks out against Brazil’s culture of materialism.

(Note: video, below, includes French as well as English subtitles, which you may have to turn on manually in the bottom right hand corner of the YouTube player menu)

No longer existing on the fringes of society, L7M has diversified his graffiti art practice, and has recently been involved in collective exhibitions in Germany, Portugal, Israel, Chile, as well as in Brazil.

Extraordinarily, Fernanda, had made plans while in Paris to connect with L7M during her sojourn in Brazil. However, it was only when she arrived a few weeks ago that Fernanda discovered that he was from the same town as her, near São Paulo.

L7M focuses on spraypainting birds and human portraits. His portraits speaks of melancholy, and as he explains in the film, can be interpreted as an objection to capitalism, and the corruption and violence that dominates Brazil. Meanwhile, his birds act as a counterbalance and represent freedom from suffering.

L7M’s work is intended to be a protest, and his street art, especially, is pointed at showing us the chaos of modern life.

About the Author

Demian Smith
starts out painting graffiti in the late ‘90s around Swiss Cottage in London, and ends up writing gossip journalism for the Daily Telegraph. Arrived in Paris in 2012 to establish Underground Paris.